Join Warrior Writers at The Suffolk Poetry Center for a few new writing prompts followed by discussion about building a manuscript. Bring old notebooks, things you’ve written at past workshops that you would like to improve.

Join Warrior Writers at the Old Oak for a little labor and new writing prompts. We´ll read a few poems by Vietnam Veterans for inspiration, and free write.

Thinking about the works of the last generation of Americans to really trust their government, the Baby Boomers who had just a few views to choose from on the evening news, we will be writing about the past and the future. We will discuss perspective in poetry, and generate some new writing.

For the first hour we will be doing a little yard work to give back to the space before digging into writing prompts around 6:30pm.

Join Warrior Writers at the Old Oak for a little labor and new writing prompts. We´ll read a few poems by Vietnam Veterans for inspiration, and free write.

Thinking about the works of the last generation of Americans to really trust their government, the Baby Boomers who had just a few views to choose from on the evening news, we will be writing about the past and the future. We will discuss perspective in poetry, and generate some new writing.

For the first hour we will be doing a little yard work to give back to the space before digging into writing prompts around 6:30pm.

The Suffolk University Poetry Center is hosting Warrior Writers for a series of workshops on the art of poetry this fall. These monthly generative writing workshops are designed for veterans to record memories and stories from thier time service and/or at war. Of course attendees are welcome to write about anything. If you have never served in the military or experienced warfare, you're also welcome to come. The series will culminate with a public performance. Stay tuned for details.

Please RSVP to receive directions to the space and to be added to the attendee list. If you are RSVPing at the last minute, please contact Caleb Nelson directly at boston@warriorwriters.org.

Join us at the Greenfield Public Library for a Warrior Writers workshop. These creative workshops offer prompts that cover a variety of military issues and experiences to encourage storytelling and the sharing of opinions and ideas for writing, reflection, and artmaking.

A highlight of these workshops for many veterans is having a space to release bottled-up thoughts and emotions among others who understand, empowering veterans to tell their own stories. By creating an open and accepting atmosphere, we aim to build a supportive community.

Workshops are for any service member or veteran regardless of their experience with writing, combat, art, deployment, and etc.Prompts and discussions cover issues and experiences relating to living in a military community, deployment and homecoming of loved ones, relationships, supporting each other, healing, and growth. No previous writing or artistic experience is necessary for participation.

The Suffolk University Poetry Center is hosting Warrior Writers for a series of workshops on the art of poetry this fall. This week, Fred Marchant is leading the workshop.

These generative writing workshops are designed for veterans to record memories and stories from their time in service and/or at war but participants are free to write about anything. If you have never served in the military or experienced warfare, you're also welcome.

The final workshop in this series will be held from 6-8pm on Wednesday, November 15th. The series will culminate with a public performance. Stay tuned for details.

Please RSVP to receive directions to the space and to be added to the attendee list. If you are RSVPing at the last minute, please contact Caleb Nelson directly at boston@warriorwriters.org.

The Suffolk Poetry Center is hosting Warrior Writers for a series of workshops on the art of poetry this fall. These monthly generative writing workshops are designed for veterans to record memories and stories from thier times in military service and/or at war. Of course attendees are welcome to write about other things. If you have never experienced military service or warfare, you're welcome to come. Bring a veteran with you.

Fred Marchant will be leading our opening workshop. Marchant served in the Marine Corps, and he was one of the first officers to be honorably discharged as a concientious objector during Vietnam. He is the author of several books of poetry, including his latest "Said, Not Said," published this past spring.

The next two workshops are also scheduled on Wenesdays:October 18th, 6-8pNovember 15th, 6-8p

The series will close with a public performance. Stay tuned for details.

RSVP. If you say you're going, we'll direct message you directions to the space and add you to the list.

Last minute attendees must contact Rachel or Caleb directly for directions. We'll be watching the warriorwritersboston@gmail.com address for inqueries.

The Old Oak Dojo has been providing a home base for the Warrior Writersreatreat and workshops for years. The Dojo operates in the spirit of gift culture, which means that they don’t charge fees for our use of the space.

The main focus of the day will be on harvesting and planting in the garden beds and chopping and stacking wood. Don't feel obligated to stay for the whole time. Whatever time you can give is appreciated. Bring gloves and wear cloths that you don't mind getting dirty.

We'll also offer a few writing prompts that focus on memoir. We'll be mining our memories for stories about working parties in the military, all those dirty jobs we didn't expect to be doing when we joined.

In this workshop, Caleb offers a crash course on eight great poetic forms of the past. We will discuss some of the best poems in the English literary canon, and complete at least one poem using a familiar form.

Poets have developed countless forms in English over the centuries, but we only really recognize a few. Writing in these forms can feel a little like completing a crossword puzzle, fun for some, tedious for others. But knowing poetic traditions provides a basis for branching out, and an understanding of what makes a poem successful.

Poetic forms work like blue prints. They offer a proven structure that we can use to format and fill out our thoughts. For a preview of the eight forms to be discussed read Caleb's Poetry Workout Regimen post.

We don't have a venue locked down yet, but it will be in Cambridge, probably at a coffee shop. Stay tuned for more details.

The Old Oak Dojo has been providing a home base for the Warrior Writersreatreat and workshops for years. The Dojo operates in the spirit of gift culture, which means that they don’t charge fees for our use of the space.

The main focus of the day will be on harvesting and planting in the garden beds and chopping and stacking wood. Don't feel obligated to stay for the whole time. Whatever time you can give is appreciated. Bring gloves and wear cloths that you don't mind getting dirty.

We'll also offer a few writing prompts that focus on memoir. We'll be mining our memories for stories about working parties in the military, all those dirty jobs we didn't expect to be doing when we joined.

Join Warrior Writers for a workshop on the art of the memoir at The Joiner Institute in the Healey Library at UMass Boston. Author of the award-winning and acclaimed memoirs: Civilianized: A Young Veteran’s Memoir, and Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq, Michael Anthony will lead a discussion about nonfiction writing and offer writing prompts to help us begin narratives from our memories.

This workshop focuses on writing true personal stories about conflict. You don't have to be a war veteran to have a story worth telling. But if you do have real war experiences and you want to tell your story honestly, here's your opportunity for inspiration.

Join us on Wednesday, July 26th, 6:30-8:30pm. For more information or to RSVP, contact boston@warriorwriters.org.

He has appeared in several anthologies, and has written for The Washington Post, Business Insider, Signature-Reads, and The Good Men Project, where he served for a year as chief editor of the War & Veterans section. He has been featured in several documentaries regarding military service, philosophy, and comedy, and he has worked as a military consultant for award-winning theater and art installations.

A graduate of Bridgewater State University, Michael also hold an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University. A former US army soldier, he currently lives with his wife in Massachusetts and spends his free time working with veterans. Michael can be reached through his website: MassCasualties.com

We'll have a retreat orientation and a member gathering to kick off the week around 4pm, along with an introductory facilitator's workshop for travelers and locals interested in facilitating Warrior Writers workshops in their communities. Stay tuned for more details. The retreat will finish with our birthday celebration on Friday afternoon/evening at the Dojo.

During the week, we'll have programming at the Dojo in addition to opportunities for Warrior Writers to participate in programming at the Joiner Institute, including with distinguished faculty of this year's Writing Workshop: Bruce Weigl, Brian Turner, Fred Marchant, Sean Davis Author, and others. For more information on the Joiner Institute's full program visit:http://bit.ly/Joiner2017.

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The Warrior Writers schedule will be updated below as we confirm events! Current schedule is subject to change and you will need to select ONE master class to attend in advance. Scholarships for additional master classes may be available but are TBD. Highlights for the week include:

Join Warrior Writers at the Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site for our last workshop of the season in the carriage house with BOB SCANLAN and KEVIN BOWEN. Bring a poem that you want to revise and perform.

Bob Scanlan, Artistic Director for the Poet's Theater at Harvard University, will lead this workshop on polishing and preforming poetry. To prepare for our reading on June 28th, he will give us insights and techniques for reading our work aloud.

Kevin Bown, author of Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong, will also be there to work with anyone who brings a peom that they're still polishing up.

Fred Marchant will join us for an encour revision workshop on the lawn around 7:30pm.

The National Historic Site preserves the home of Henry W. Longfellow, which also served as George Washington's headquarters during the Siege of Boston. In June, we'll finish the series with a public reading on the lawn in conjunction with our Warrior Writers Retreat in Boston with the Joiner Institute.

For more information or to RSVP, contact boston@warriorwriters.org.

UPCOMING:

Sunday, June 25 @ 4pm – Join us at the Old Oak Dojo as we kickoff our Warrior Writers Retreat in Boston! We're celebrating our tenth birthday this week and will have friends traveling in from all over. Help us as we welcome them to Boston and orient them to the space.

After the featured reader, there will be 5-minute open mic slots available to anyone. We encourage first timers and seasoned performers to come out. We are actively seeking featured readers for upcoming months. For more information, please contact Eric Wasileski at ericwasileski@gmail.com.

At the Veterans Writing Project we believe that every veteran has a story. But we know that some of us need a little help telling that story. So we provide no-cost writing seminars and workshops for veterans, service members, and their adult family members. We’re also building an archive of writing by members of the military community. We publish a quarterly literary review and an ongoing scroll of writing by our friends on our sister site, O-Dark-Thirty.

We approach our work with three goals in mind. The first is literary. We believe there is a new wave of great literature coming and that much of that will be written by veterans and their families. The next is social. We have in the United States right now the smallest ever proportion of our population in service during a time of war. Less than 1% of Americans have taken part in these most recent wars. Our WWII veterans are dying off at a rate of nearly 900 per day. We want to put as many of these stories in front of as many readers as we can. Finally, writing is therapeutic. Returning warriors have known for centuries the healing power of narrative. We give veterans the skills they need to capture their stories and do so in an environment of mutual trust and respect.

Our seminars are led by working writers who hold MA or MFA writing degrees and who are, perhaps most importantly, themselves veterans. We have a number of different models including a two-day intensive seminar, a six- or fourteen-week workshop, and customizable workshops for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or playwriting. To that end, we seek to bring our programs to places where veterans are, and particularly to underserved areas around the country.

Our core curriculum is Writing War: A Guide to Telling Your Own Story. Written by a veteran for veterans, it details the elements of craft involved in writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry or plays. Beginning with the basic questions, “Why do we write?” and “What’s different about writing the military experience?”, the book includes chapters on scene, setting, dialogue, narrative structure, character motivation and development, point of view, and more. Writing War includes detailed examples demonstrating each element of craft. All examples used in the book were written by writers who are also veterans. It is written to be accessible to beginning and more experienced writers. To purchase a copy of Writing War, click here.

The Veterans Writing Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Washington DC founded by veterans and family members.

Veterans of conflict or otherwise and active duty members of the military are invited to join us for a generative writing workshop. Family and friends are welcome. Join us in the carriage house behind The Longfellow House, 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge, MA.

Ron Whittle will be leading this workshop with Christine Tosti. Ron has just finished putting together a chapbook of love poems that he wrote while in Vietnam.

If you've been working on an elegy or a short story about death and remembering the fallen, please post it up for comments on reddit.com/r/warriorwriters. If you've attended one of our workshops and are not yet a contributor on our new Reddit page, email your username to boston@warriorwriters.org and we'll add you.

We will meet in the conference room next to the Joiner Institute on the 10th Floor of the Healey Library at UMass Boston. For more info, or with questions, call Caleb 617-680-0254.

Join us for a generative writing workshop in the carriage house behind The Longfellow House, 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge, MA. Vets are welcome to bring family and friends.

Kevin Bowen will lead our workshop this week. Kevin was drafted and served in the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam from 1968-69. He graduated from UMass Boston in 1973 and earned his PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was also a Danforth Fellow. In 1979, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to New College, Oxford. He served as an aide and speechwriter for Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill III before returning to UMass Boston. He was the director of The William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences until 2011. Prior to serving as the director, he was co-director of UMass Boston's Veterans Upward Bound Program.

Since 1987, Kevin has returned to Vietnam many times, initiating cultural, educational, and humanitarian exchanges. He first poetry collection, Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong was published by Curbstone Press in 1994. His poems have appeared in Agni, The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Tri-Quarterly, and Witness. With Bruce Weigl, he is co-editor of Writing Between the Lines: Writings on War and Its Consequences (University of Massachusetts Press, 1997). He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and a Pushcart Prize for his work.

This month's featured reader is KEVIN BOWEN. Kevin was drafted and served in the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam from 1968-69. He graduated from UMass Boston in 1973 and earned his PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was also a Danforth Fellow. In 1979, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to New College, Oxford. He served as an aide and speechwriter for Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill III before returning to UMass Boston. He was the director of The William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences until 2011. Prior to serving as the director, he was co-director of UMass Boston's Veterans Upward Bound Program.

Since 1987, Kevin has returned to Vietnam many times, initiating cultural, educational, and humanitarian exchanges. He first poetry collection, Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong was published by Curbstone Press in 1994. His poems have appeared in Agni, The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Tri-Quarterly, and Witness. With Bruce Weigl, he is co-editor of Writing Between the Lines: Writings on War and Its Consequences (University of Massachusetts Press, 1997). He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and a Pushcart Prize for his work.

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After the featured reader, there will be 5-minute open mic slots available to anyone. We encourage first timers and seasoned performers to come out. We are actively seeking featured readers for upcoming months. For more information, please contact Eric Wasileski at ericwasileski@gmail.com. Arrive early for a Warrior Writers Workshop with Caleb Nelson at 5:30pm!